Means for producing a permanent crease in garment fabrics



Marh 1, 1938. D SEGELIN ET AL v 2,110,006

MEANS FOR PRODUCING A PERMANENT GREASE IN GARMENT FABRICS Filed June 30, 1937 FIGLB INVENTORS .qAV/D SEGEL/N a BY Same/101v SEGEL/N yw/z TTORNEIV Patented Mar. 1, 1938 UNITED STATES MEANS FOR PRODUCING A PERMANENT GREASE IN GARMENT FABRICS David Segelin and Solomon Segelin, Rochester, N. Y.

Application June 30, 1937!, Serial No. 151,230

2 Claims.

This invention relates to method and means for producing a permanent crease in garment fabrics and has for its object to provide a novel method and means for forming and permanently fixing a crease in garment fabrics which is especially suitable for trousers.

These and other objects of this invention will become more readily apparent from the detaipcd description thereof which follows, reference being had to the accompanying drawing in which Figure l is a top plan view of a presser foot and guide finger used in the method of perma nently fixing the fabric crease in cooperation with the needles of a two needle sewing machine.

Figure 2 is a longitudinal sectional View of the presser foot, guide finger and creased fabric, including the crease maintaining tape which is fed into contact with the back of the crease below the presser foot.

Figure 3 is a vertical cross section of the presser foot, and crease formed therein.

Figure 4 is a detail perspective view of a portion of a crease made permanent by means of the method and means of our invention.

In the several figures of the drawing like reference numerals indicate like parts.

All so-called permanent creases heretofore made have proven to be only partially permanent and their appearance was always more or less artificial especially when incorporated in trousers legs. The method and means forfixing a crease in fabrics forming the subject matter of our present invention makes possible the formation of an absolutely permanent crease in any kind of fabric and produces especially for trousers anatural appearing crease at a minimum cost.

This new method and means is simple and uses a double needle sewing machine such as has been used for other sewing operations. The sewing machine construction therefore forms no part of our invention except that we provide such a machine with novel means for carrying out a preferred form of our method. These means comprise the presser foot I which is mounted to rock in the usual manner at the bottom of the presser foot stem 2 so as to have this foot adjust itself on the fabric when yieldingly pressed against it.

The presser foot has a wide base and extending longitudinally thru the middle of the bottom thereof is the crease maintaining or holding groove 3. This groove is narrow and has substantially parallel sides with a rounded top so as to have the crease substantially fill the grooves with the sides thereof held together to have their inner surfaces substantially make contact with each other whilg. passing therethru. At the forward end of the presser foot the longitudinal groove terminates in a vertical groove 0 so as to provide a guide and folding means for folding g the sides of the crease before it enters the groove 3 i! order to hav the crease pass thru the groove of the presser foot in a uniform formation.

Cooperating with the guide and folding groove in the presser foot is the guide finger 5 located ahead of the presser foot. This guide finger comprises a thin horizontally projecting member which is mounted in front of the presser foot so as to have its outer free or forward end project into the vertical groove 0 substantially in line II) with the groove 3 of the presser foot. This guide finger is adapted to project into the inside of the preliminary pressed crease in the fabric to thus direct its movement in line with the crease maintaining groove in the presser foot at a substantial distance rearwardly from the needles 8 and 9 so that the guide finger will not hold the crease expanded when the crease fabric passes between the needles.

As illustrated in Figures 1 and 3, the presser foot is provided with a pair of vertical needle holes ii and 7!. The needles 0 and 0 operate thru these holes just outside the sides of the crease or adjacent thereto in order to have these needles stitch close to the center line but on the outside of each side of the crease. The needles thus embrace the crease as they move down the sides thereof and hold the crease during the stitching operation in order to prevent it from flattening out while the stitching operation takes place. In this way the groove 3 in the presser foot holds the crease in formation in front and back of the needles substantially at right angles to the plane of the fabric with the inner surfaces of the crease substantially in contact with each other to permit the needles to slide down on the outside of the crease and embrace it during the stitching operation.

In the stitching operation the crease maintaining tape i0 is sewed to the under side or back of the crease while the crease is held in formation by the groove 3 of the presser foot and the needles 8 and 9. For this purpose the tape I0 is suitably guided to the under side of the fabric in line with the preliminarily formed crease therein and at a point before it enters the groove 3 in the presser foot. In this way, as illustrated in Figure 3, the edges of the tape are held flatly clamped to the outfiaring fabric on each side of the back of the crease. The needles, when pass- 55 ing thru the fabric as above pointed out, thus also pass thru the tape near the edges thereof. The complete stitching operation of the needles thus fastens the tape to the fabric with two lines of stitching near the edge of the tape while the tape is held flatly in a horizontal position against the back of the crease spaced from the-outer edge thereof with the sides of the crease extending upwardly therefrom substantially at right angles thereto as illustrated in Figure 3.

A minimum width of tape is thus sewed to the back of the crease which, after leaving the presser foot, allows the crease to expand but a slight amount, sufficiently however to make the crease assume a natural sharp wedge shaped formation as illustrated in Figure 4.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that our new method and means of forming a permanent crease for fabrics comprise the preliminary formation of the crease by pressing or otherwise and then guiding the crease and holding it without the aid of an inner support in a fixed predetermined formation to enable double needles to straddle and hold the crease between them while stitching the crease maintaining tape to the back of the crease with two lines of stitching spaced a minimum distance from the center line of the crease substantially adjacent the outer sides of the crease and with the sides of the crease substantially at right angles to the crease maintaining tape.

A suitably moving, serrated feed member ll engages the garment fabric below the presser foot I to feed the fabric for the consecutive stitching operations. A stationary tongue l2 projects into a recess in the feeding member II and supports the crease maintaining tape between the needles during the stitching.

. We claim:

1. In combination with a multiple needle sewing machine a presser foot having a horizontally extending fabric guide groove at the bottom thereof, an elongated horizontal guide finger of substantially uniform thickness mounted rearwardly of and spaced from said presser' foot and arranged in cooperative alignment with said groove with the forward end of said guide finger spaced a distance rearwardly from the needles so that action of the guide finger takes place at a distance from the needles thereby providing for unobstructed movement of the trousers fabric along the horizontal guide finger.

2. In combination with a multiple needle sewing machine for attaching a crease maintaining tape to creased garment fabrics, an elongated stationary guide element of substantially uniform thickness and a forming element of correspondingly uniform width longitudinally aligned with relation to each other, said guide element being arranged and adapted to guide the fabric on the inside substantially the depth of the crease and said forming element being adapted to engage the fabric on the outside substantially the depth of the crease to bring the inner surfaces of the creased fabric together until they are substantially in contact with each other with the needles of the machine cooperating with the forming element at a substantial distance from the front of the forward end of the guide element.

DAVID SEGELIN. SOLOMON SEGELIN. 

